White House says India's harassment of American reporter 'antithetical to democracy'

The warm ties on display last week during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit have been followed by Indian officials verbally attacking former President Barack Obama's comments on the rights of Muslims in the country and the harassment of an American reporter for asking Modi about minority rights in India.

The fallout led to the White House issuing a condemnation of the attack as well as challenging the attribution given to India as the world's largest democracy.

“It’s completely unacceptable and it’s antithetical to the very principles of democracy that ... were on display last week during the state visit,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Monday.

During the joint press conference Modi held with US President Joe Biden last week, Sabrina Siddiqui of The Wall Street Journal asked the Indian leader a question about human rights in his country and the discrimination of minorities.

“In India’s democratic values, there’s absolutely no discrimination neither on basis of caste, creed or age, or any kind of geographic location,” responded Modi, who noted that he was surprised by the question.

Modi rarely takes questions from reporters or takes part in press conferences, making last week's a rare moment for journalists to ask him a question.

Since that question, Siddiqui has been subject to online attacks from officials from Modi’s nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including a party spokesman who called her a "bigot" on Twitter.

'Many Hussain Obama in India'

In a similar incident, Obama said during an interview with CNN last week that the “protection of the Muslim minority in a majority-Hindu India” was something deserving of a mention during Biden's meeting with Modi.

Members of Modi's party immediately lambasted Obama, saying that the former US president has himself been responsible for the deaths of Muslims around the world.

“Six countries with Muslim-dominant populations faced bombings because of him. Have the bombings not occurred from Syria to Saudi to Yemen to Iraq?” Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters on Monday. 

India's defence minister, Rajnath Singh, made a similar comment, saying that Obama “should think about himself, how many Muslim countries have been attacked by him”.

Compared to his predecessor George W Bush, drone strikes under Obama increased tenfold, resulting in thousands of deaths in Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen, among other Muslim-majority countries.

Rights groups have consistently questioned the legality of such strikes and their precision, and have argued that well into Obama’s presidency, dozens of civilians were being killed in the ruthless pursuit of a single target. 

But while some BJP members criticised Obama for being hypocritical in his comments, others used the former US president's remarks to make incendiary comments towards Muslims in India.

In response to a tweet from an Indian journalist asking if police were going to arrest the former US president over his remarks, BJP politician Himanta Biswa Sarma mocked Obama on Twitter.

“There are many Hussain Obama in India itself,” said Sarma, chief minister of the state of Assam which has a high Muslim population. The minister misspelled Obama's middle name, which is commonly used by Muslims around the world.

“We should prioritize taking care of them before considering going to Washington.”

Rights organisations have criticised Modi's visit to Washington and meeting with Biden, and urged the US president to engage with his Indian counterpart on issues of human rights.

Biden said that the two leaders spoke about democratic values, but White House National Security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that Biden will not "lecture" Modi.